How Cannabinoids can be used as Medicine and the Companies Developing New Drugs and Treatments

August 24, 2017 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investorideas.com, a global news source and investor resource covering cannabis and biotech stocks releases a snapshot of companies in the cannabis/marijuana sector that are developing methods for cannabinoids to be used as medicine and treatments for cancer, epilepsy, concussions and traumatic brain injury.

The Hemp Business Journal projects that the CBD consumer market will grow to $2.1 Billion by 2020. The CBD medical treatment market is still emerging, with new companies coming into the public markets as new applications for CBD are discovered and developed.

The recent dramatic fall and volatility in the share price of Zynerba Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ZYNE), a clinical-stage specialty pharmaceutical developing and commercializing transdermal pharmaceutically-produced cannabinoid treatments, may have put short-term security on the sector but analysts and investors are very bullish on the sector long-term and some look at this dip as an opportunity to buy.

On August 14th, Zynerba Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:ZYNE) reported top line results from its Phase 2 STOP (Synthetic Transdermal Cannabidiol for Treatment of Knee Pain due to Osteoarthritis) clinical trial evaluating ZYN002 (cannabidiol [CBD] gel). The study did not meet its primary endpoint of reduction from baseline in the weekly mean of the 24-hour average worst pain score at week 12 for either dose. However, statistically significant results were achieved for a number of secondary endpoints. Importantly, the composite responder analysis (defined as a ≥30 percent reduction in worst average daily pain scores and a ≥20 percent improvement in the WOMAC physical function score) for 250 mg daily of ZYN002 4.2% CBD gel achieved statistical significance (p=0.016). A trend toward statistical significance was observed in other secondary endpoints.

Within a week, Roth Capital changed their rating from a downgrade on August 8th to an upgrade on the 15th. As reported by StreetInsider on August 15th, "Roth Capital upgraded Zynerba Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ: ZYNE) from Neutral to Buy with a price target of $15.00.

Analyst Michael Higgins sees an opportunity to get long after telling clients that he was previously bullish on the ZYN002 trial. The analyst comments that he believes a pain study with the drug in doses similar to the lower dose in STOP may be optimal for future studies."

(http://scythianbio.com/) is aiming to develop the first accepted drug regimen for concussion and traumatic brain injury with their cannabinoid-based combination drug therapy.

In a recent interview with Investor Ideas, David Schrader, Chief Operating Officer at Scythian said, "We started researching into the manner in which concussion causes injury to the brain, and we noted a link; that there are several cannabinoids that actually work to stop up the symptoms and the processes that are causing this brain tissue injury," he said. "From our research we learned that there are several brain receptors that are involved in this process and that cannabinoids actually work and trigger these different brain receptors."

"We have come up with a combination of two different drugs, which we've compiled together into a single drug that we're hoping will be available orally," he said. "One of them works on the CB2 receptor, which is what CBD works on, and CBD is a chemical that's very heavily in marijuana but it's not psychoactive."

"We've added a second drug into the mix, which works on the NMDA receptor," he said. "Each of these two receptors basically helped control and modulate this immune response. The hope is that through the use of administering these two different drugs after traumatic brain injury, it will minimize the amount of inflammation and immune response and by doing that, preventing a lot of the secondary brain damage."

GW Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:GWPH), the recognized leader in the cannabinoid-based medicines sector is developing new treatments for epilepsy. Its lead product candidate, Epidiolex® (cannabidiol) is in development to treat rare and catastrophic forms of childhood-onset epilepsy, potentially offering relief to patients for conditions that previously had few treatment options.

GW's proven proprietary cannabinoid product platform consists of a continually evolving library of internally generated novel cannabis plant types that produce selected cannabinoids, discovery of novel cannabinoid pharmacology through their network of world leading scientists, an intellectual property portfolio, in-house formulation, processing and manufacturing capabilities and development and regulatory expertise.

Another significant player in the sector, Insys Therapeutics' (NASDAQ:INSY) proprietary sublingual spray technology, with its capability to develop pharmaceutical cannabinoids, aims to address the clinical shortcomings of existing commercial products. Insys currently markets two products, Subsys®, which is a sublingual Fentanyl spray for breakthrough cancer pain, and a generic version of Dronabinol (THC) capsules.

For investors considering investing in the cannabinoid-based medicines sector, expect volatility along with opportunities to buy as the sector evolves and matures.

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Scythian Biosciences Corp. (SCYB) is a paid featured company on the 420 Cannabis Investor Ideas Directory and is a paid featured cannabis company and biotech for news, social media and PR effective August 7th for 2 months. More details - http://www.investorideas.com/About/News/Clientspecifics.asp